BIOCHEMOTHERAPY WITH INTERLEUKIN-2, INFER FERON-ALPHA AND 5-FLUOROURACIL FOR THE TREATMENT OF PATIENTS WITH METASTATIC RENAL-CANCER

Interleukin-2 (IL-2) and inlerferon-alpha (IFN-alpha) were both admini stered subcutaneously (SC) in combination with intravenously (IV) appl ied 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) for the treatment of patients with metastasi zed renal cell carcinoma (RCC). The therapy protocol consisted of a tr eatment cycle of 8 weeks, which could be carried out in an outpatient regimen. The IFN-alpha was given in each of the 8 weeks (6-9 MU/m(2) o nce to three times weekly SC) combined sequentially with IL-2 (5-20 MU /m(2) three times weekly SC for 4 weeks) and 5-FU (750 mg/m(2) TV week ly for 4 weeks). Among the 30 consecutive patients treated, in 2 cases a complete, and in 9 cases a partial, remission was achieved in patie nts with mostly lung and skeletal metastases, with an overall objectiv e response rate of 37%, Mean response duration was 8 months (range 3-1 8 months), A stable state of the disease lasting 3-18 months was obser ved in 10 cases. The side effects were only slight and corresponded to toxicity grade I (n = 2), grade II (n = 22) and grade III (n = 6), ac cording to the WHO classification, In conclusion, this triple-drug bio chemotherapy demonstrated significant clinical effectiveness comparabl e with that of an aggressive IL-2 treatment regimen (applied TV), but without its high toxicity.